Month: August 2007

Ultra-Rightwing Sen. Larry Craig Sentenced for Lewd Behavior in Airport Men’s Room

Jon Ponder

Are any Republicans really heterosexual? Now we learn that Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) was arrested in June by a plainclothes cop who was investigating lewd conduct in the men’s room at a Minneapolis airport.

According to a report in Roll Call earlier this year, Craig was sending signals in the men’s room that he was seeking a sexual encounter:

According to the incident report, Sgt. Dave Karsnia was working as a plainclothes officer on June 11 investigating civilian complaints regarding sexual activity in the men’s public restroom in which Craig was arrested.

Airport police previously had made numerous arrests in the men’s restroom of the Northstar Crossing in the Lindbergh Terminal in connection with sexual activity.

Karsnia entered the bathroom at noon that day and about 13 minutes after taking a seat in a stall, he stated he could see “an older white male with grey hair standing outside my stall.”

The man, who lingered in front of the stall for two minutes, was later identified as Craig.

“I could see Craig look through the crack in the door from his position. Craig would look down at his hands, ‘fidget’ with his fingers, and then look through the crack into my stall again. Craig would repeat this cycle for about two minutes,” the report states.

Craig then entered the stall next to Karsnia’s and placed his roller bag against the front of the stall door.

“My experience has shown that individuals engaging in lewd conduct use their bags to block the view from the front of their stall,” Karsnia stated in his report. “From my seated position, I could observe the shoes and ankles of Craig seated to the left of me.”

Craig was wearing dress pants with black dress shoes.

“At 1216 hours, Craig tapped his right foot. I recognized this as a signal used by persons wishing to engage in lewd conduct. Craig tapped his toes several times and moved his foot closer to my foot. I moved my foot up and down slowly. While this was occurring, the male in the stall to my right was still present. I could hear several unknown persons in the restroom that appeared to use the restroom for its intended use. The presence of others did not seem to deter Craig as he moved his right foot so that it touched the side of my left foot which was within my stall area,” the report states.

Craig then proceeded to swipe his hand under the stall divider several times, and Karsnia noted in his report that “I could … see Craig had a gold ring on his ring finger as his hand was on my side of the stall divider.”

Karsnia then held his police identification down by the floor so that Craig could see it.

“With my left hand near the floor, I pointed towards the exit. Craig responded, ‘No!’ I again pointed towards the exit. Craig exited the stall with his roller bags without flushing the toilet. … Craig said he would not go. I told Craig that he was under arrest, he had to go, and that I didn’t want to make a scene. Craig then left the restroom.”

In a recorded interview after his arrest, Craig “either disagreed with me or ‘didn’t recall’ the events as they happened,” the report states.

Craig pleaded guilty on August 8 to a disorderly conduct charge. The court dismissed the charge of gross misdemeanor.

Last year, gay activist Mike Rogers outed Craig, but the senator denied he is gay.

Roll Call on Gonzalez Resignation

Trish

George, Laura, Al and Becky on Sunday, Aug. 26, 2007

Sad. So sad. I might just cry.

George Bush: “After months of unfair treatment that has created a harmful distraction at the Justice Department, Judge Gonzales decided to resign his position, and I accept his decision. It’s sad that we live in a time when a talented and honorable person like Alberto Gonzales is impeded from doing important work because his good name was dragged through the mud for political reasons.”

Edwards: Gonzales “oversaw a political purge of U.S. Attorneys at the Justice Department, approved torture techniques at Guantanamo Bay and approved illegal spying on Americans. His leaving is a victory for all of us.”

Or not.

— The most concise reaction came from John Edwards: “Better late than never.”

Following the Bush press conference, Edwards expanded on that, saying Gonzales “oversaw a political purge of U.S. Attorneys at the Justice Department, approved torture techniques at Guantanamo Bay and approved illegal spying on Americans,” and his leaving “is a victory for all of us.”

— Hillary Clinton: “This resignation is long overdue, and so is the appointment of an Attorney General who will put the rule of law and our Constitution above partisan politics…Time and time again, [Gonzales] demonstrated that his loyalties lie with the President and his political agenda, not the American people or the evenhanded and impartial enforcement of our laws…from warrantless wiretaps to the firing of U.S. Attorneys.

— Barack Obama: “I have long believed that Alberto Gonzales subverted justice to promote a political agenda, and so I am pleased that he has finally resigned today. The President needs to nominate an Attorney General who will be the people’s lawyer, not the President’s lawyer, and in an Obama Administration that person will first and foremost defend and promote the rights and liberties enshrined in our Constitution.”

— Bill Richardson: “The resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is long overdue. The President must nominate an Attorney General who is a lawyer for the American people not a political arm of the White House.”

— Rudy Giuliani: “Judge Gonzales served his nation honorably and I wish him well in the next phase of his career.”

— Florida Sen. Mel Martinez (R): Gonzales “is an honorable man has conducted himself always with honesty, dedication and integrity. He is my friend and he is a good man. He and his family have my thanks for their sacrifice for serving during difficult times, and my best wishes for the future.”

Good News and Bad News for Hurricane Victims — FEMA’s Outsourcing Emergency Relief

Buck Banks

One of the hallmarks of the Bush administration has been its willingness to outsource everything from IRS tax collections to intelligence agency functions to Social Security to the Iraq War. Now we find out that the Federal Emergency Management Agency is skipping down the outsourcing path as well.

The state of Texas has already given up on FEMA and has instead arranged for Home Depot and Wal-Mart to provide water, ice and other supplies in case of an emergency. And FEMA is OK with that, as it fits perfectly with the agency’s new approach to emergency management:

So, if it’s no longer handling disaster logistics or disaster planning, what do we need FEMA for?

The most salient change is an increased reliance on the private sector — the outsourcing of much of the agency’s logistics to a contractor or contractors that will be in charge of acquiring, storing and moving emergency supplies. This arrangement, known as third-party logistics, is common in many industries and should make FEMA’s supply lines shorter and quicker, says Marco Bourne, FEMA’s director of policy and program analysis. Companies that specialize in third-party logistics are very good at what they do.

Well in that respect — being good at what they do — third-party logistics firms have a leg up on the feds. But wait, what is the recurring challenge with subcontractors? Oversight. Right, and FEMA has proven none too swift about that, too.

“It doesn’t make sense for FEMA to store commodities when [Defense Logistics Agency] does it and in quantities far greater than what we’d ever need,” Bourne says. “They do in a month what FEMA might do in a couple of years.”

The same could be said for large retailers. Bourne says FEMA always has encouraged state and local governments and emergency responders to work out agreements with the private sector, as Texas has done. But he admits that Hurricane Katrina — during which Wal-Mart, Home Depot and other companies contributed supplies — highlighted that need.

So, if it’s no longer handling disaster logistics or disaster planning, what do we need FEMA for?

Gonzales Resigns, Could Be Replaced with Chertoff

Jon Ponder

We’re learning this morning that U.S. Attorney Gen. Alberto resigned on Friday, and the speculation has already begun about who Pres. Bush will nominate to succeed him.

The early favorite is Michael Chertoff, who currently serves as the secretary of the Dept. of Homeland Defense (DHS). Chertoff is a former a judge and a current loyal Bushie. Unlike fellow loyalist Condoleeza Rice, who got kicked upstairs from national security advisor to secretary of state as a reward for her incompetence in the planning of the invasion and occupation of Iraq, Chertoff has yet to receive a promotion for the lack of supervision he provided former FEMA head Michael “Heckuva Job” Brown, his direct report, during the Katrina disaster.

Plus Chertoff has already been vetted. He underwent Senate confirmation to become DHS secretary, so it would make it harder for Democrats to challenge his nomination to AG, or so the thinking goes.

Chertoff received his first national exposure on cable news in the 1990s as an advocate of impeaching Pres. Bill Clinton. Earlier this year, Ted Olson, another figure from the Clinton wars, was floated for the AG job. A longtime friend of Clinton prosecutor Ken Starr, Olson served as the de facto chief operating officer of the Arkansas Project, a smear campaign against the Clintons that was funded by Pittsburgh millionaire Richard Melon Scaife. In 2000, Olson also successfully argued Bush v. Gore at the Supreme Court, for which he was rewarded with the post of solicitor general, a job once held by his buddy Ken Starr.

Starting With No Exit Strategy Means No End in Sight

Trish

The question isn’t “Will we leave Iraq?” The question is, “When will we leave, and how do we begin that process?” Bush answers by insisting we can’t leave now. He never says when we can, and that’s because he never had an exit strategy beyond shock and awe and mission accomplished. After three months, he was out of ideas.

See this film. If your nearest theater isn’t listed here, email them. I did, and they answered immediately and told me it’s coming my way soon.

DNC Leaps Ever Closer to Irrelevancy as It Pledges to Stay the Course

Trish

Democrats in Florida today are of one voice: “Well here we are.”

The day we all dreaded has come and gone, when the DNC would decide what to do about the fact that Florida’s legislature mandated the state’s primary move ahead on the calendar. And the decision we’ve all been waiting for said, “We are rigid and terrified and if we act reasonably with Florida, all the other states will expect us to be reasonable with them. Mayhem will ensue. We must stay the course.”

The DNC said, “We are rigid and terrified and if we act reasonably with Florida, all the other states will expect us to be reasonable with them. Mayhem will ensue. We must stay the course.”

At least one DNC member seemed to understand why it’s not a good idea to cut Florida adrift.

“We have to enforce our rules, but we don’t want to shoot ourselves in the head trying to heal a little cut on the hand,” said former DNC chairman Don Fowler of South Carolina, worrying the move could have long-term consequences. “You put the Republicans down there for a couple of months just humming and drumming and shucking and jiving and there’s an absence of Democrats, that’s going to give them a great advantage.”

Probably so. But now that it’s happened, now that our silver-tongued state party chair has failed to persuade, now that the national Dems have turned their backs on us, I say, “Who needs ’em?”

Florida Democrats don’t. We will vote in our state primary, regardless of whether our votes translate into delegates for a convention whose only real purpose is the official kick-off of the general election campaign cycle.

After all, the convention is either a fun show to watch if you’re wonks like us at Pensito Review (and likely you, dear reader) or a big pain in the butt if you’re like most of the viewing public. Either way, its main value is in entertainment since the “nominee” is long known beforehand.

The drama being acted out now is that everyone has 30 days to think of a way for Florida to send delegates to the DNC’s miniseries. FDC Chair Karen Thurman is exploring pay-to-play caucus options, which the DNC will pretend to accept reluctantly rather than reveal its relief at not having to ax a main cast member in its lavish and irrelevant production.

We’re being asked to stay tuned with hints of a surprise ending. Given the state of DNC leadership, not to mention go along to get along types like Pelosi and Reid in Washington, I will probably reach for the remote.

Obama In Miami — Whole Lotta Audacity Going On

Buck Banks

In what could be the last opportunity for a 2008 Democratic presidential candidate to campaign in Florida without being punished by the Democratic National Committee, Barack Obama spoke today before a packed house at a local Democratic fund-raiser. Today was also the day that the Florida Democratic Party had to lobby the national party to not punish it because the state’s Republican-controlled legislature moved Florida’s primary to Feb. 5, violating the opposite party’s rules.

Overall, Barack Obama was a hit, keeping his audience fired up and on its feet most of his speech.

But nobody mentioned that at the rally, a grass-roots Miami-Dade Democratic committee fund-raiser for its mostly state-level local candidates. An early speaker at the event — and there were many of them — noted that in 2000, nobody could have imagined holding a Democratic Party event in Little Havana for a black presidential candidate.

Indeed, just seven years ago, the Miami Cuban voting bloc was perceived as fundamentally and monolithically Republican, with Spanish speakers seen as loyal to the Republicans who seemed to hate Fidel Castro and were willing to impose an ongoing economic embargo until the Third World island nation saw the error of its ways, collapsed economically or Castro died, whichever came first.

But today a Cuban candidate for the state house stated unequivocally and to thunderous applause that the Republican Party could no longer count on the South Florida Hispanic vote.

Obama said that if he were elected he would remove all restrictions on travel to Cuba and lift all restrictions on sending money or goods to family members. But when he said that he would leave the embargo in place “as an inducement to change” and “use aggressive diplomacy” to begin moving toward normalizing relations with Cuba, he received a few scattered boos and some of the Cuban faction began to leave the theater.

But for the most part, it was a rousing rally with at least 3,000 in attendance, and Obama performing his stump speech, often with the spirited inflections of a preacher and with more piss and vinegar than he usually shows in his nuanced television appearances. Indeed, starting with a woman in the balcony hollering, “We love you, Barack!” to which he responded, “I love you, back, baby,” in a convincing Barry White imitation, there was a casual, ongoing call-and-response aspect to the proceedings that continued throughout his speech.

Not to sound too corny, but I think people felt Obama was speaking to them, not at them, and were inclined to holler out questions to which he invariably responded. These were not hecklers, as they waited for an appropriate pause or responded to a comment from Obama before calling out a question or comment.

Obama hit the “audacity” theme pretty hard, saying that if the Washington press corps were there, they would be calling him a “hope peddler” and “hope monger,” monikers he gladly accepts, but it resonated very well with a very mixed audience of blacks, whites and Hispanics who had paid either $30 or $100 for seats.

Busloads of college students from Florida Atlantic University were brought in (the school bought blocks of tickets) to the event, and most responded enthusiastically to Obama’s positions on affordable education and job creation.

Overall, Barack Obama was a hit, keeping his audience fired up and on its feet most of his speech — and that was after an hour and a half of short speeches by local commissioners, state legislators, party officials and music by Democrat folk singer Ellen Buckstell and a rousing number by the Miami Northwest High School marching band.

Obama hit all his stump themes: universal health care, energy independence and green tech, education, jobs and wages, and the failure of the Iraq War and the failure of the Bush administration to make us safer and more secure.

His abiding message, however, is that to him, politics is a mission, that we all have a stake in each other, and that he has both faith and hope in the “decency and generosity in the heart of the American people.”

UPDATE: You can watch an unedited video of Obama’s entire speech here.

Quotes from Barack in Miami

Buck Banks

Barack Obama’s stump speech is well-oiled and filled with quotable lines. But as often as he has given it — often to crowds 10 times the size of the 3,000 assembled in Little Havana today — it is still delivered with passion and vision. Here are a few choice quotes:

“Crowds remind me of a couple of things: pundits are not right about much, and when it comes to what’s wrong with this country, it’s not the American people who are the problem; the American people are the answer.”

‘I don’t trust Alberto Gonzales with my civil liberties.’

“The American people are tired of being sick and tired. Enough is enough! The American people want to turn the next page in American history.”

“We’ve never had a better marketing agent than George Bush for the Democratic Party. Though Dick Cheney gives him a run for his money.”

“I don’t believe in little change. I believe in big change, and we need big change in America.”

“I’m asking you to be hopeful at a time when it’s easy to be cynical.”

“You can disagree without being disagreeable, and you can find consensus without compromising your beliefs.”

“I want us to out-educate the world today so we can out-compete the world tomorrow.”

“I’m sick and tired of an administration treating our Constitution as something to be negotiated around instead of as the foundation of our democracy.”

“If we can get enough Republican congressmen to change their minds, we can end this war without George Bush.”

“I want to go before the United Nations and say, ‘America’s back.’”

“I don’t trust Alberto Gonzales with my civil liberties.”

Barack and Me in Miami

Buck Banks

So, having seen Barack Obama in person today, what did I come away with? An increased appreciation for the man as orator, an excitement about the Miami-Dade Democratic Party and a nagging thought that will warm the hearts of my co-editors:

Maybe I should join the Democratic Party, if for nothing else, to vote against Hillary Clinton and for Barak in the primary.

It’s probably not likely I’ll drink the Democratic Kool-Aid, but if Obama continues to inspire and motivate people the way he clearly did today in this political backwater of a Third World country, I might just be so inclined.

Not that I’m ready to do that. There’s a lot that could happen between now and primary time (especially if the national Dems punish the Florida Dems and render any party switch or vote of mine meaningless).

Frankly, I wish Dennis Kucinich had a snowball’s chance. I like him, not just for his chutzpah, which he has in spades, but for his sense of humor and mostly for his really progressive ideas, which I agree with. Mostly.

But today I was impressed by my local Dem pols, for a change. Not that I gained any respect for the Florida Democratic Party and Karen Thurman, who fortunately had nothing to do with today’s event. But if the Miami-Dade Dems can pull off a series of these events (which they promised Barak was the first of), and if I see some coalition of Dems in Miami and an ongoing robust intensification, organization and concentration of effort, then I might be inclined to give up my independence and drink the Kool-Aid.

Today I saw representatives of Equality Florida, who are backing a Fairness for All Families measure aimed at providing rights to nontraditional families (read:gays), I listened to the first openly gay Hispanic elected official in Miami and I heard my city commissioner talk about passing a bill of rights for the City of Miami that includes “equality for everybody” (Miami is the only city in South Florida that doesn’t have a bill of rights), I heard a song about how religion shouldn’t be used to take away my right to choose, and at the end of the rally I heard a high school choir sing the old Bill Withers song, “Lean On Me.”

It’s probably not likely I’ll drink the Democratic Kool-Aid, but if Obama continues to inspire and motivate people the way he clearly did today in this political backwater of a Third World country, I might just be so inclined.

But don’t hold your breath, Jon and Trish.